Franklin raising rates for trash, recycling collection for the second time

Franklin residents will see a second rate increase for trash hauling and recycling services starting this fall.

City Council Monday approved the 35-cent increase as part of the city’s contract with Rumpke. The three-year contract that began in 2014 also had three one-year options, with final option year for 2019-2020.

Starting Oct. 1, Franklin’s 3,800 customers will be charged $14.34 per month for trash collection, yard waste and recycling services plus a $2.71 administrative fee.

Steve Inman, public works director, said there is no increase to the city’s administrative fee and that all other rates for toters, tire pickup, and excess trash collection will remain the same.

Inman told council that the city and Rumpke will have to negotiate a new contract because the current contract will have exhausted all of its option years.

This is the second rate increase for Rumpke services in the past few months. In June, council passed on a nine-cent fuel surcharge so that Rumpke could absorb the new Ohio fuel tax in its rates.

On July 1, Ohio motorists started paying 10.5 cents more per gallon of gas and 19 cents more per gallon of diesel fuel.

After a review of its equipment, routing and other resources needed to service customers, Rumpke then identified the average productivity per hour per stop and multiplied that by the tax impact per truck hour. It was then able to determine the tax impact per yard and average impact per stop.

Rumpke, the region’s largest trash hauler and recycler, is in the process of amending area municipal contracts to cover the new gas tax in its rates. The trash hauler has contracts for all municipalities in Butler County and most of Warren County.

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